One of the more interesting stories last Tuesday’s primary wasn’t a Presidential race. It was in Cook County where a prosecutor with the support of Black Lives Matter won opposing the worst abuses of the incumbent and ending the school to prison pipeline. I don’t know enough to have any opinion on how it’ll play out going forward. But from the outside it seems like the right local people are excited.
That got me thinking: Here in King County, we have a prosecutor who, while better than Cook County is still a problem. To cite the most prominent example, he didn’t prosecute Ian Berk after he was unjustified in killing John T. Williams.
It’s 2 more years until Satterberg is up for reelection if he decides to run again. And he won his first election fairly easily. Still, it seems like something for lefty activists in King County might be able to pull off if they found the right candidate.
King County has had a Republican prosecutor forever. Nobody ever runs against an incumbent unless he’s truly awful. Gonna be tough to find a plausible candidate. Defense attorneys won’t be interested (or electable). The strongest candidate is a top deputy prosecutor who won’t run against his boss. He waits for the boss to retire, then runs to replace him. Maybe you could slip a Democrat into that office (fingers crossed) but it would take a real groundswell of activism to kick Satterberg out and I just don’t see that happening.
3) A public officer or peace officer shall not be held criminally liable for using deadly force without malice and with a good faith belief that such act is justifiable pursuant to this section.
This is the law of Washington. Even a homicide as egregious as Berks could not result in a conviction. A prosecutor could prove that he lacked a good faith belief but proving malice beyond a reasonable doubt would be impossible.
Where were the Democratic U.S. Attorneys? In Los Angeles a U.S. Attorney charged and convicted the men who beat Rodney King.
This statute is more protective of police homicide than any other in the United States. See Ansel Herz’ February 10 Stranger column.
This one isn’t Satterberg ‘s fault.
Thank you, Fernando. Carl certainly should have known that.
@1 What RR is saying is unfortunately true for most county positions be they the prosecutor, Sheriff, judge, ect. The incumbent typically wins no matter what party he is with if he is competent and does the job. The county prosecutor in Whatcom county has been there for over 2 decades. He got a bit of a bloody nose when he took on a local book seller and adult shop over nudie books about 15 years ago, something that played well politically to the folks up here, but every competent attorney told him he would lose. Something Prosecutors don’t like and try to keep to a minimum. That win loss record that can have some play with voters, though is a Prosecutor with a few less wins on his guns a poor prosecutor or one trying to do his job and protect the public? Unfortunately we the public won’t know if a prosecutor is actively disregarding constitutional protections and actively spying on us until he’s out of office and probably has been in his grave for a long time.
And yes the other way Prosecutors leave office is to become judges. Want to get rid of Satterburg get one of King counties judges to retire and get Satterburg to take the open position temporarily and typically he will the judges seat the next election. Then the Prosecutor seat is open and a real election will ensue. If two people run, and there is some party horsetrading that takes place behind the scenes. You agree not to run a guy in this position we won’t run a guy here. And with the fact the two highest vote getters in the primary will go to the general election why should the parties run a real candidate in an election that Satterbury’s number two is likely to win. He is a Republican right?
With the 4th estate not able to keep newsrooms open and hiring fewer reporters reporting on local government has gone down. Just having a roving reporter at the county courthouse, the county seat, or smaller city offices doesn’t happen like it used too. Though the problem of non competitive local seats has existed since they existed.
Sorry if Bill is a good dog catcher it’s hard to get the people to vote for a new one, even if Bob were to be a great dog catcher. After all we the people might not want a great dog catcher as our silly dog gets out all the time and Bill who we play craps with has yet to catch our dog.
And if you really want to replace a county official you need to hang out at the Grange here in Washington State.